Blackberry Mailservice Outage

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM) is scrambling to restore service to around the world. The problem is with the internet services on all Blackberry devices.

Thursday morning Blackberry reported that it had located and solved the problem with the internet services. However do the huge back log of emails, it is going to be take days to catch up.

With over 70 Million users world wide this was a very painful outage for RIMM as they are already seeing huge competition from Apple and Google. In the second quarter Blackberry controlled 11% market share which is down from 20% in the first quarter of 2009. The shares are around 66% off their 52 week high.

So what is the outlook for RIMM and their Blackberry devices? At the present, if the company is forced to run for cash and rolls back its investments in new devices, the stock could be worth $21 per share, estimates Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek.

It has yet to be seen if RIMM can compete with Apple & Google’s touch screen phones. QNX, RIM’s new operating system designed for touchscreen phones is not due out until next year. In the near term RIMM needs to focus on stabilizing their network and trying to retain their customer base.